by Trailing by seven points (32-25) at halftime of its game at Cloud County on Monday, the Cowley College women’s basketball team rallied for a 67-61 win. Seanna Boltz’s (Oglala Lakota) eighth and final three pointer of the game broke a 61-61 tie with 37 seconds left and Cowley held on for the win.
The victory was Cowley’s second in a row and improves the Lady Tigers’ record to 18-9 overall and 8-9 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. Cloud, losers of five games in a row, is now 9-18 overall and 4-13 in the conference.
After trailing 15-12 at the end of the first quarter and 32-25 at the end of the first half, the Lady Tigers were down 40-33 midway through the third quarter before out-scoring the Lady T-Birds 14-4 over the final five minutes of the quarter to lead 47-44.
Cloud County would tie the game at 49-49 on a basket by Lydia Ostenson with 6:44 left to play, but Cowley would score five straight points to go back on top.
However, the T-Birds would rally to go in front 61-59 on a jumper by Kelsei Kelly with 1:18 remaining. A basket by Cowley freshman Teagan Brouwer would tie the game at 61-61 with 50 seconds left. Then, after an empty possession by Cloud, Boltz hit what would turn out to be the game-winning three-pointer.
Needing a trey to tie, Shontrice Austin thwarted the T-Birds opportunity by stealing the ball. The Lady Tigers would put the game away by hitting three of their final four free throws to pull out the win.
“I felt like we really defended well at critical times and had just enough offense to get out of town with a good road win,” Cowley head coach Todd Clark said.
The Tigers held a 33-9 advantage in points from three as Boltz went 8-of-14 from long range and finished with a game-high 26 points. Kalyne Daniels also contributed to the victory as she came off the bench to finish with 11 points and five rebounds.
After scoring 33 points in Cloud’s 68-58 win at Cowley on January 18, Haven Hamilton was held to only 12 points on 5-of-13 shooting on Monday.
Cowley will return home to face Allen Community College in its final regular season home game Saturday at 5:30 p.m. The Lady Red Devils (7-18) are in last place in the Jayhawk East with a conference record of 2-14.
